Luke ARCHER, The University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Nik LOMAX, The University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Bryan TYSINGER, The University of Southern California, United States
National lockdowns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused a polarisation in alcohol consumption behaviour in England. Whilst the majority of people have maintained their behaviour, roughly similar proportions of people have reported drinking more or less frequently. Data from Public Health England show rates of unplanned admissions to hospital for alcohol specific causes decreased by 3.2% from 2019 (pre-pandemic) to 2020 (during the pandemic), however admissions for alcoholic liver disease during this period increased by 13.5%. This suggests that outcomes for those who exhibit the highest consumption of alcohol have worsened during the pandemic.
This paper will assess the impact of implementing a hypothetical 50 pence minimum price per unit of alcohol for the English population aged 50 and older. This policy is designed to impact the most harmful drinkers, and has already been implemented in both Scotland (2018) and the Republic of Ireland (2022) with the aim of reducing the number of alcohol-related deaths and hospital admissions. To carry out this assessment we use the English Future Elderly Model (E-FEM), a dynamic microsimulation model which uses data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The E-FEM allows us to assess the impact of policy interventions on health and related socio-economic outcomes at the individual level by modifying the behaviour of these individuals over time. We report on a range of possible outcomes arising from the minimum alcohol price intervention, including improvement to life years, disability and disease free life years, chronic disease and functional limitations.
Mots clés : Microsimulation|Ageing|Alcohol|Policy|Health
A104374LA